Chapter on A Man Who Is Wronged in a Matter of Need
As for when he is in a general [gathering], and he sat with them year after year, and through trial of himself [he knows] that they bring him out — that it is not safe for him [to remain] with them — and through their conversation and their proximity to him, [he is drawn] to speech that his Master detests, then he goes away, or [it is for] seeking livelihood that he cannot do without, and he knows that — then he has handed himself over to destruction deliberately, being negligent of the command of God, Mighty and Glorious.
Chapter on the man who has a need regarding the door [of visiting]
Or he sits with some of his brothers — those who claim brotherhood in God, Mighty and Glorious — while he knows that it is not safe for him in his religion with them.
I said: What do you think — if he goes while he is resolved not to speak with what God, Mighty and Glorious, detests, and he has tried himself and [found] that it is not safe for him with them?
He said: If he resolved to abandon speech regarding what God, Mighty and Glorious, detests, and he has sat with them — and he was previously resolute like this resolve of his regarding the future — and he did not remain safe, then he has exposed himself to tribulation knowingly and through trial, and he deserves that God, Mighty and Glorious, not protect him. He has exposed himself to destruction after knowledge and trial, and he deserves that from God, Mighty and Glorious, for after the trial of himself [he knows] the rarity of safety, yet he handed himself over [to it] deliberately.
And when he has thoroughly examined that from himself, and cut off sitting with them, a right incumbent upon him becomes due — the right of God, Mighty and Glorious — either livelihood that he cannot do without from Him, Mighty and Glorious. Likewise, [he should know] that were it not that he sat with them, it would be [the same were it not] that he visited them. God is more generous than to abandon him when he has abandoned sitting with them for the pleasure of his nafs (soul) and its comfort. Were it not for his Lord, Mighty and Glorious, he would not have left sitting with them and would not have ceased coming to them. But nothing of His right became incumbent upon him [without reward] — God, Mighty and Glorious, would not deliver him to destruction, since he has preferred God, Mighty and Glorious, over the desire of his own soul.
I said: What if sitting with them is upon the remembrance [of God] and goodness, yet there occurs between that some speech that God, Mighty and Glorious, detests?
He said: Abandoning sitting with them and coming to them — when he has tried himself [and found] that it is not safe for him with them — because it amounts to voluntarily committing disobedience.
I said: They are brothers in God, Mighty and Glorious.
He said: This is among what the liar resorts to in his claim. The lowest of those who deserve brotherhood in God, Mighty and Glorious — rather, love — is one below whom you would not be safe with. Whoever you are not safe with — such that you cannot remain silent in his presence, let alone be immersed [in sin] with him — he is an enemy to you in your religion, even if you call him a friend, a companion, and a brother in God, Mighty and Glorious.
So how can one be a companion and brother in God, Mighty and Glorious, when you expose yourself through sitting with him and frequenting him to the wrath of God, Mighty and Glorious? For you cannot remain silent in his presence from committing that which God, Mighty and Glorious, detests. Indeed, a man may utter a word — not seeing how far it reaches of God's displeasure — and it is recorded against him as God's wrath upon him until the Day he meets Him.
So who is a greater enemy to you than one whose conversation exposes you to committing that which angers God, Mighty and Glorious, against you?
And the hadith of Bahz ibn Hakim, from his father, from his grandfather, that the Prophet ﷺ said:
Woe to the one who speaks and lies in order to make people laugh. Woe to him, woe to him.
And the hadith of Qays ibn Abi Hazim, from Ibn Mas'ud:
Indeed, a man speaks a word to make people laugh — he said, meaning in gatherings — and it distances him as far as what is between the heavens and the earth, such that he plunges into the Fire because of it.
So whoever claims that this was a bad path, it is from him. And likewise, if he would not be pleased with you except through affectation, and would not be pleased with you except through forced compliance, and your soul refrains from that when he was not pleased with you. And likewise, that you become angry for the sake of his anger, and you sever ties from one who severed ties, whether he acted unjustly or justly, and his severing and his anger — this falls into excess. But conversation [about such matters] is more than that.
This one is an enemy to you, not a brother to you in God, Mighty and Majestic.
Have you not heard the hadith of Muhammad ibn al-Nadr al-Harithi: Indeed God, Mighty and Majestic, revealed to Musa (upon him be peace):
"O Musa, be wakeful, seeking out intimate companions for yourself. Every intimate companion who does not accord with My course — do not keep his company, for he is an enemy to you, and he hardens your qalb (heart) against you."
So whoever is like this, he is an enemy to you, even if you have called him a brother in God and a companion. And you have been deceived by him [damaged] — and that is khadi'a (deception).
How can one be a brother in God, Mighty and Majestic, or a companion in God, Mighty and Majestic, when God, Mighty and Majestic, is disobeyed through him and for his sake?
And how could it be that [damaged] harm for you or [damaged]?
Have you not heard the hadith of Abu Musa, from the Prophet (peace be upon him):
"The likeness of the evil companion — every companion of the bellows, meaning the blacksmith — if he does not burn you with his sparks, his foul smell clings to you."
And likewise [this is the case]. He said: If you did not lose — while in his company — your not disobeying God, Mighty and Majestic, along with him, and the hardness of your qalb (heart) and his preoccupation — then one who is like this to you is not a brother, but rather he is an enemy to you, and he is more harmful to you in your religion than one whom you openly oppose.
People are only of [several] types: a man you do not know or you know him but do not associate with him, and a man you have returned to for a man's sake; and a man who is concealed from you; and a man who is a sinner; and a man for whom you are a companion.
As for the innovator, your heart recoils from him, and likewise the sinner, even if his calling you to the truth did not bring your soul to completion.
[damaged]
And the one you do not know — you do not associate with him, so do not converse with him and do not feel intimate with him. All of these — do not occupy yourself with them, and do not let your heart find rest in them, so that you become heedless through them, until you refrain from what your Lord, Mighty and Glorious, detests.
Rather, what comes to you is from the companion who is your likeness and your intimate and resembles you, so your heart finds rest in him, and grows heedless with him, until you disobey God, Mighty and Glorious, while you are heedless, not remembering God, Mighty and Glorious.
[damaged]
Until he causes you to fall into his snares, because he is your likeness, your intimate, and your resemblance. And he is gentler than the skilled hunter.
Do you not see that the hunter contrives [traps] for crows, and fashions nets with which to catch sparrows from among sparrows, and does not contrive [to catch] sparrows by means of crows? Rather, he contrives by setting [a trap] for every bird of its own kind and type, because like is drawn to like, and it alights upon it, and by it he catches [his prey]. Have you not heard the letter of Abu al-Darda' to Salman, may God's mercy be upon them both:
"As for what follows: even if the body be far from the body, the spirit is near to the spirit. A bird of the sky alights upon its likeness on the earth."
And he spoke truly, may God reward him. We have indeed seen that. So the hunter contrives [to catch] like with like among the birds. Likewise your enemy Iblis — knowing that you recoil from the people of innovation, and from the sinners, and from intimacy with the common people — he stirs your heart by calling you to the meeting of likes , and to becoming familiar with them, and out of love for conversing with them. So when the two meet upon love and intimacy, wariness departs from your heart regarding him, just as one would be wary of the innovator.
from speech, each one of which has been made to seem attractive to you: "he drew near to it and it became familiar," "your qalb (heart) found intimacy with him," "you found repose in him," and the profligate — what he uses to lead you astray thereby, and you consult him regarding it.
Then the companions differ in his estimation, for the stratagem of Iblis is general — indeed you are a cautious, fearful person in many of your states. Your companion does not begin by adorning for you lying and backbiting, even if you are averse to that, and he avoids it. But rather he calls you — truly — when they remember God, Exalted and Glorified, and your hearts find ease, he adorns for you idle talk and repose inclining toward worldly matters. And when you have both plunged into that, he adorns backbiting and lying for you.
Even if you are among the fearful in many matters, he causes backbiting to flow between you under the guise of anger for the sake of God, Exalted and Glorified, or amazement, or disapproval, or feeling pain for the one you backbite.
And if you do not stand in that station of fear, he causes backbiting to flow between you under the guise of anger, rancor, and retaliation against the one who mentioned you, or one of you mentioned it while the other was content with that, or [under the guise of] repose in mentioning the faults of people.
Remember God, Exalted and Glorified, in proportion to what He knows of your weakness.
The enemy may desire for the servant what God, Exalted and Glorified, detests, yet the servant refuses it, and his soul is not content to associate with the common people in goodness alone — so how then with evil!?
So when he disobeys, he adorns for him the meeting of one whom he hopes will obey him through it. And when he meets him, he adorns speech for one of them until the other initiates conversation. Then he adorns for him word after word, so that he may spend the entirety of his day — or part of it — sitting silent, or speaking about what does not benefit him of remembrance, or seeking his livelihood in other than what is lawful for him, until he meets one whom he claims is his brother for the sake of God, Exalted and Glorified. And when he meets him, there flows between them of speech what perhaps they do not part from, until they are both harmed altogether.
Among what ʿUmar, may God be pleased with him, said:
"And beware of your friend except the trustworthy one, and none is trustworthy except one who fears God, Almighty and Glorious. Nor the masses. When you meet him, you have increased in safety." "If you were engaged in idle talk, he turns you to remembrance. If you were heedless, he alerts you. If you were engaging in what God, Almighty and Glorious, detests, he forbids you from that and alerts you to it. When he alerts you that it is not permissible for you, you regret it and repent from it."
"And so long as you did not know that it is something God, Almighty and Glorious, detests, you were not ignorant of it" — meaning: you came to know it and benefited from it in a general way — what you had not known of your sins, so that you guard against them in the future.
Likewise, al-Shaʿbī said: "Half your intellect is with your brother," and he spoke truly in his hope in God, because when his intellect alerts you to what you had been heedless of, and you had been negligent, it is as though your intellect was with him, so he returned it to you. And it was as though all your intellect was with him, so he returned it to you at a single moment.
As for in all your states, half your intellect was with him, because you have become attentive — your brother does not neglect, so you alert him, and you neglect what he does not, so he alerts you. Thus you worship God, Almighty and Glorious, with two intellects when you come together, and you come to know the faults of your soul through your intellect and your brother's intellect.
So whoever does not fear God, Almighty and Glorious, among companions — even if he is one who prays, or one addicted to fasting, or one who wages jihād, or one who performs pilgrimage — he is a bane upon you. For his prayer, his fasting, his military expeditions, his pilgrimage, his abundant remembrance, and his zakāt are for him, while your plunging with him and his plunging with you into what God, Almighty and Glorious, detests is a bane upon you.
His likeness is only like the likeness of a companion of yours who is wealthy and affluent, while you are a poor person in need. Every time he comes to you, he eats your food and does not share with you from his wealth — so his wealth is for him and its harm is upon you. Likewise is this one: his prayer, his fasting, his military expeditions, and his pilgrimage are for him — along with what his plunging draws you into — and his bane is upon you.
If you had been safe before meeting him, meeting him at the point of encounter drew you out to ruin in your religion. And if you were in a state of goodness, you exchanged it for evil upon meeting him. And perhaps you also initiate with him before he initiates with you in plunging, because he is the place of your heart's (qalb) comfort and your soul's (nafs) intimacy — so it is not permissible for you.
Or perhaps you two overflow in the remembrance of God, Almighty and Glorious, and His obedience, or you cooperate with one another in some of it according to the measure of your strength. Then the enemy covets you both, and you do not part except upon what God, Almighty and Glorious, detests of speech. So what you cooperated upon of righteousness does not stand against what you cooperated upon of evil, because you have both wasted it. For the pleasure of
And that is «and you cooperated upon» the manifest loss.
How many a companion with whom you disobeyed God, Exalted and Glorious, and you made a show for him while he has already died, and you left him alone in the grave, while what remains of your disobedience of God, Exalted and Glorious, against you is written down. And the discourse regarding companions is lengthy, and this is not the place to set it forth.
I shall expound for you, God willing, Exalted and Glorious, regarding their companionship in other than this. I only intended by this to alert you to abandoning the causes that diminish your resolve and weaken your sabr (patient endurance) upon fulfilling your covenant with God, Exalted and Glorious, in tawba (repentance) when you are weak, and when the tempting, debasing causes that do not cease are presented to you. If you sever them, you have prevailed over your own self. For the strong one, when he exposes himself to the tempting causes, becomes weaker than the weak one, since he does not guard himself from the tempting causes. And the weak one is stronger than him in abandoning what God, Exalted and Glorious, dislikes, when the tempting causes have been removed from him.
Chapter on What One Seeks Help Through in Abandoning the Meeting of Brethren Whose Meeting One Fears Will Bring Little Safety in Religion
If you said: With what shall I seek help in abandoning companions? Then indeed you should remember nothing greater upon the qalb (heart) in tribulation, nor more prevailing in comfort.
He said: That you be concerned with your religion, compassionate toward your body against the Fire.
If you are thus, you will remember and reflect, so reflect well and examine thoroughly in reflection until you know what your meeting with them diminishes in your religion. If you look into that with presence of heart, along with compassion toward your body against the Fire and toward your religion against diminishment, and you come to know what that consists of — speech that is reckoned against you, in which you are not safe from the wrath of God, Exalted and Glorious — and if you knew that nothing would come from you in speech upon meeting companions except a single word that your Lord, Exalted and Glorious, dislikes, and then you felt compassion for yourself, and you looked upon it and upon yourself with the eye of yaqin (certainty), while you are fleeing from it on the Day of Resurrection, preoccupied from it by what you are in of tremendous peril, having already borne many heavy burdens of
«you would not attain it except by His companionship» [TN: likely a continuation from the previous page], and that is when you were solicitous and fearful of God, Exalted and Glorified, «nothing would be more hateful to you than meeting Him.»
An illustrative parable for that: if every time you met your brothers and companions, they took a hair from your beard or a thread from your garment, your meeting with them would decrease, and you would come to detest them, and you would detest meeting them. For you know that if that continued, your beard would be gone and you would become disfigured, and people would look upon you with disgrace and ugliness. Likewise, you would quickly be stripped bare of your garments.
Similarly, whoever is solicitous for himself and his religion, and recognizes what is diminished from his religion by meeting them, he would detest meeting them — except for meeting those who increase him in his religion through waraʿ (scrupulous piety) and vigilance. Those are the brothers for the sake of God, Exalted and Glorified. The name of brotherhood applied to them is truth and ṣidq (truthfulness), while the name applied to others is falsehood and fabrication.
I said:
Tell me, if I resolve to abandon everyone with whom my religion is not safe, how then shall I have patience when my soul longs for meeting him?
He said:
If your soul resents abandoning the one from whom you are not safe, you exercise caution and set a limit until there comes upon you some of the day while you have kept silent from what your Lord, Exalted and Glorified, detests, and your heart has rejoiced in well-being, and you have increased in zuhd (renunciation) regarding meeting him, and nothing is more hateful to you than meeting him and seeing him, when you have found the sweetness of well-being and hoped through it for the pleasure of God, Exalted and Glorified, being bestowed upon you.
So when you sense from someone that you fear will strip you of it, meeting him becomes burdensome upon you. If you employ caution and withdraw from companions until you attain well-being and your heart finds the sweetness thereof, you will detest meeting the one who would strip it from you. For the heedless aspirant finds his comfort in speech and his distress in silence. That is because what predominates over his heart is the love of the comfort of conversing with people, and the seeking of well-being is not what predominates over his heart. So his distress at that point is in silence, and his pleasure and comfort are in speech.
But when he concerns himself with well-being and the pursuit of it and attentiveness to it predominates over his heart, and he then acts upon it for part of his day —
Conversation with companions and brothers became burdensome upon him when he knew that in their discourse there was what could lead to something whose removal would be a blessing from God, Exalted and Glorious, upon him — a safety from it.
If he saw that a word slipped from one of them that God, Exalted and Glorious, detests, the earth would constrict upon him despite its vastness. For before he met them, he was sound of qalb (heart) and body, hoping for the pleasure of God, Exalted and Glorious, and had remained silent about what God, Exalted and Glorious, detests out of fear. Then from that point, what he feared might have occurred would accumulate — that the displeasure of God, Exalted and Glorious, might have descended upon him — and the earth would constrict upon him, and grief would cling to his heart, since he had departed from safety toward ruin.
Yet he himself would refrain from a single word of their discourse, and the earth would nearly constrict upon him despite its vastness, when — if he had spoken — the matter would have been completed by the very word that he had completed by remaining silent about it.
This is the inheritance of wara' (scrupulous piety), and the habit of the God-fearing, and the assistance of God, Exalted and Glorious, and a clear sign and a victory for the aspirants, when they have exhausted themselves for His sake, and struggled against their desires and their whims for His sake.
I said: If you have resolved to abandon their company, but then you turn away from them only to encounter one of them in a marketplace or a gathering, or meet him in a study circle or a congregational mosque, or at a funeral or the like, or a need arises for one of them toward me, or arises for me toward him, or a visitor comes to me, or I hope that he will accept from me — so he cuts off the one he accompanied and resolves upon the like of what he had resolved upon, recoiling from him, repulsed.
He felt ashamed and was cautious lest the other make him comfortable with what he does not love, and he departed from heedlessness and negligence of the qalb (heart). When you have committed your heart to being wary of him, and he recognizes that from you, he will restrain himself.
When you meet him without desire or craving for his conversation — rather, you meet him only because of some of these circumstances or what resembles them — then you commit your heart to wariness of him, because of your knowledge that the enemy [i.e., Satan] will use him to ensnare you, even if it be through the completion of good manners or superfluous speech. You say to yourself: "How well I know those whom [Satan] has insinuated against me to divert me from obedience to God, Exalted and Glorious!" So you take it as a lesson. If he is one who can bear admonition, you forbid him gently and alert him to what he says, for perhaps you will also benefit him. But if he is one who cannot bear that, or he is one who would argue with you when you forbid him, until —
the matter leads you to something that brings you out to a deficiency in your religion, you disliked what he said and were cautious, except that you forbid him
gently, and do not argue with him when he intends that as an objection, unless he is one who desires to seek clarification, so you explain to him
if you are able to do that well; otherwise, remain silent about it. If he begins to plunge into it and you are unable to stand firm against him, and it is not possible to leave, then if you are able, mention the Hereafter, so that perhaps you may divert him from that, and that will be for you —
As is reported from Ibrāhīm al-Taymī, who said:
Indeed, a man would come to a group while they were plunging into falsehood, and he would turn them to dhikr (remembrance of God), and he would have his reward and their reward.
And if he begins with you with something good, you say to yourself: "This is good, but I do not know what will come after it," so you are on guard. And if he begins with the remembrance of God, Exalted and Glorious, due to the length of what you have experienced from companions and from yourself — and so when that is the case —
[damaged] what does not concern you.
So even if nothing objectionable has occurred between you, once you have alerted yourself to him with the requisite wariness for your qalb (heart), you do not plunge into it with him. Your wariness was an increase in your fear of God, Exalted and Glorious, and your practice toward yourself, preventing you from slipping at another time when what began as remembrance runs on and then leads — in the course of it or following the remembrance — to what does not concern you, or to what constitutes disobedience to your Lord, Exalted and Glorious.
And likewise with the people of your marketplace: you speak to them concerning your livelihood or other than that, and your heart is wary of them. And likewise when one of them visits you, or you go to him for a need, or he comes to you for a need — you prolong silence with him and leave off speech with him, until what is pleasing to God, Exalted and Glorious, takes its course. And when you converse with him in that matter, wariness does not leave your heart, due to the length of what you have experienced from yourself.
As for going to him so that he may admonish you — after what you complain of regarding your own weakness, he will not make that clear to you, for you are like one who feigns the ability to swim — so how can one who feigns swimming rescue the drowning?
So occupy yourself with your own self, unless you are tried by encountering him and a right becomes incumbent upon you that you must fulfill for God's sake. In your silence at that point you fear the displeasure of God, Exalted and Glorious, upon him if you remain silent about him, so you command him and forbid him, and alert him if he accepts; otherwise you remain silent about him and do not argue with him.
And likewise some of the kinship ties — from their visiting you is a trial for you, may God be exalted. And they visit you, and you do not come to them for the comfort of your nafs (soul).
And beware, if you have been testing yourself by plunging with them into what God, exalted and glorified, detests. And likewise whoever is with you in your dwelling — your familiarity with him causes you not to be troubled by him, and it makes you heedless and negligent, so you converse with them about what is not lawful for you.
So be watchful of studying the consequences, if you are unable to avoid them. But be cautious, and remember what your Lord, exalted and glorified, described of the people of Paradise when they spoke — once they were settled and saw the outcome of apprehension and awe. They said: «Indeed, we were before among our family, apprehensive» . And He described the enemy among the people of the Fire, as the Exalted said: «Indeed, he used to be among his family in happiness» [84:13].
So be apprehensive and cautious of them, and beware that they tempt you away from your religion. And they are harder upon you in intimacy and in showing weakness before them. So be most wary of them.
It is incumbent upon one who has the right over them to command the right and forbid them from plunging into what God, exalted and glorified, detests, until you fulfill the command of God, exalted and glorified, regarding them.
He specially began His command to you, saying: «O you who believe, protect yourselves and your families from a Fire» .
Ali, may God be pleased with him, said: Discipline them and teach them.
Mujahid said: Counsel them with the taqwā (mindfulness) of God, exalted and glorified.
Qatada said: Command them with obedience to God, and forbid them from disobedience to God, exalted and glorified.
Al-Dahhak said: And your families — let them protect themselves.
And you will have the like of their rewards, and they will know your way and remain silent about what tempts you when you are heedless, and you plunge with them, then you return to God, exalted and glorified, through tawba (repentance).
Do you not see what God, exalted and glorified, praised Isma'il with in His saying: «He used to command his family with prayer and zakāh» . And God, exalted and glorified, said to His Prophet, peace be upon him: «And command your family with prayer» .
And likewise the seeking of knowledge — do not seek it with one whom you cannot maintain proper conduct alongside, and do not seek it except alone or with one whom you can maintain proper conduct alongside.
As for needing him in some of that, it is not that you leave knowledge entirely, lest you need to marry, so you leave it. Rather, be cautious of them, and the foremost of that is wariness and recoiling from them. And if a right becomes incumbent upon you concerning them, then fulfill it. For they will not be free of one of three stations: either they benefit, or some of them benefit and thus suffice you; or he heeds you and thus refrains and suffices you; or he is ashamed before you due to his knowledge of your preoccupation with his speech, and thus suffices you. So your religion remains sound, and the seeking of knowledge becomes pure for you without affliction or sin tainting it.
Likewise your partner in your trade or your craft, and the hired worker for you, or the one whom you hire, or one with whom you transact — wean your soul from its habitual way with him, and wean him from his habitual way with you. Be cautious and be on guard, and do not seek his help in rectifying your worldly affairs at the cost of corrupting your religion.
If you slip in any of that, do not let it prevent you from hastening to tawba (repentance), for there is no dispensing with returning and turning back to your Lord, Mighty and Glorious. If your resolve is to sever the means from among the servants and others that remove you from what God, Mighty and Glorious, detests — then whatever you have fulfilled of what is incumbent upon you concerning them for the sake of God, Mighty and Glorious, praise God, Mighty and Glorious, for that. And when you slip, seek forgiveness, feel remorse, be wary of that cause, take precaution in the future against that slip, and be on guard against its likes. Your khashya (reverential fear), if God, Mighty and Glorious, wills, is praiseworthy when you practice it out of hope in God, Mighty and Glorious, and out of khawf (fear) of Him. And your sin is forgiven when you follow it with repentance, and it becomes a lesson and a warning for you in what you face in the future — from it and from its likes.
It will not be long before God, Mighty and Glorious, turns toward you — if you are sincere with God, Mighty and Glorious — and He shows mercy upon your striving, your awareness of your heart being for Him, and your soul's self-scrutiny concerning your affairs, and He removes the one who used to tempt you and cause you to slip, and you are strengthened upon obedience to your Lord, Mighty and Glorious.
So act regarding these means as I have described to you, and every cause that causes you to slip and tempts you. For if every cause were mentioned, the book would become lengthy, and the intelligent person suffices with allusion rather than explicit statement. And your restraining of your limbs from what your Lord, Mighty and Glorious, detests is a safeguard against the causes that cause you to slip.
So you abstain as the people of this world abstain, lest you stumble [therein] and perish, abstaining out of desire for well-being and fear of prolonged affliction.
Your likeness in your life before your Lord is like the likeness of a king among the kings of the people of this world whom things of desires and pleasures have been made available to, and he indulged in what he loves of things, while remedies surrounded him along with an illness of his body and debilitation. If he indulges in what he is able to, he perishes; and if he abstains and endures, he shall live. So he has taken the counsel of physicians, frequented the pharmacists, endured drinking bitter medicines, and avoided wholesome foods. His body increases in emaciation due to the scarcity of his food, and his illness diminishes each day while his health increases. If he chose abstinence, even though his body craves the finest pleasures, out of fear that the illness would rise and kill him, and out of hope that well-being would return to his hands and he would attain pleasures with a sound body and lasting well-being, then his life would become pleasant without illness, and his living would be pure without being clouded.
Likewise is the believing aspirant, the one of taqwā (God-consciousness): he abstains from everything in this world that would destroy him in his Hereafter. Emaciation and austerity become apparent upon him, and loneliness, and the departure of intimacy with people, and the appearance of sorrows, and the departure of joys. He chose all of that out of loathing to indulge in his pleasures, lest the wrath of his Lord, Mighty and Glorious, descend upon him and His punishment become incumbent upon him — and out of hope that God, Mighty and Glorious, would be pleased with him thereby, so that he would be saved from His punishment, and would attain pleasures in the Gardens without illness and without any diminishment in that, nor any consequence, nor any fear of destruction therein, along with everlasting permanence in it forever, and the good pleasure of his Lord, the Most High.
So adhere to the abstinence, and remember the evil consequences in the Hereafter, and hope for the sweetness of the life of the Hereafter. And seek aid through that which he abstains from for the sake of seeking His good pleasure, for God, Mighty and Glorious, has never ceased to be a helper to the aspirants, and compassionate toward them.
Had He willed, He would have made you self-sufficient from the abstinence at the very beginning of your start, but rather He desired that ṣidq (truthfulness) of seeking His good pleasure through struggle and exertion should pervade from you, until when you are truthful in the seeking and you endure the exertion of your soul and its struggle, He turns toward you with assistance, and abandoning what you desire becomes easy for you.
because it is not pleasing to Him, and He blessed you with His obedience, and the generosity that is not beset by miserliness. And He only loves from His servant, the aspirant (murid), that he be sincere in seeking His good pleasure, so that his nafs (self/soul) struggles for Him, and his caprice (hawa) strives against itself for Him, and desire dies away from him, and the trials are lightened from him by God, Exalted and Glorified, and He assumes charge of his governance and strengthens his resolve, when He sees him earnest in seeking His good pleasure, Exalted and Glorified.
Were a slave among the slaves of the people of this world to turn toward his master while he was weak in his body, and he turned toward his master in his weakness, falling once in his walking and rising again, and that happened repeatedly — his master looked upon him, turning toward him, and he would stumble on his face due to his weakness, then rise again, not ceasing from his turning toward his master in seeking nearness to him and his good pleasure, and his master saw that befalling him in his turning toward him repeatedly, and he had many riding beasts — if his master had the slightest nobility or mercy, neither his nobility nor his mercy would leave him without sending to him a mount upon which the slave would come to him, relieved from falling, and hasten upon it to his meeting.
How much more worthy is God, Exalted and Glorified, of that! When He sees His servant, the aspirant, striving against his self, then he slips, and that does not prevent him from returning to the seeking of His good pleasure — he strives against his self, distressed at his lapse with a distress greater than the grief of the one who has fallen on his face.
When He sees him thus, He lightens upon him the seeking of His good pleasure and hastens him thereby to the lofty ranks of nearness to Him — Exalted is He whom none resembles in His generosity and His munificence, His nobility and His gentleness, His mercy and His kindness and His grace.
Book of Alerting to the Knowledge of the Nafs (Soul), the Evil of Its Acts and Its Claims, and Its Desires [TN: "ahrā" likely "makarihā" — "its detestable qualities"]
I said: You have described to me riyā' (ostentation) and its causes, so from where did it come?
He said: From your own self — from its desire (hawā).
I said: And how did it come from my own self, when I have an enemy who schemes against me, and a world that adorns itself for me and tempts me?
He said: Your enemy will never obtain from you what he desires except through the desire of your own self. Were it not for that, you would have actually increased in nearness to your Lord through your enemy's calling, since the cause of nearness was his calling — because when your enemy called you and you refused to answer him, you were, by your refusal, obedient when you disobeyed the one who called you to what your Lord, Exalted and Glorious, does not love. And your holding fast against him was out of khawf (fear) of God, Exalted and Glorious, and rajā' (hope) for His reward. So you abstained, and you employed fear and hope where you were commanded. And had your self not been inclined toward the world, you would have increased in nearness through its adornment. But when you were tested with the world and its delusions, you did not incline to its delusions. Rather, you desired the Hereafter and longed for it, and you refused to indulge in the world or incline toward that with which you were tested, lest it deprive you of the Hereafter or diminish it. So you obeyed God (Most High), and the world was the cause of that, as God, Exalted and Glorious, says:
Indeed, the totality of what is upon the earth is but an adornment for it, which He made beautiful for them. He intends the beauty of good deeds in adorning it, and «We have made what is on the earth as an adornment for it, in order that We may test which of them is best in conduct» [18:7] — that is, best in conduct with regard to it.
And indeed the best of conduct regarding it is your zuhd (renunciation) of it and your preferring the Hereafter over it. If that escapes you, then abandon every adornment upon it that incurs the displeasure of the Lord, Exalted and Glorious. That is the waraʿ (scrupulous piety) incumbent upon you for the sake of God, Exalted and Glorious.
No one from the people of this world who calls you to error and sin harms you if you do not comply with your nafs (soul). Rather, you are rewarded when you refuse, resist, and hold fast to the word of God, Exalted and Glorious, and His Messenger.
Likewise, whoever wrongs you and harms you — if you do not disobey God, Exalted and Glorious, in the matter, and you do not retaliate against him so as to become like him — he does not harm you. Rather, he exposes you to benefit and destroys himself. He is none other than an enemy you have been commanded to struggle against — and they are the disbelievers . So that struggle against him is what benefits you.
In either case, you are the winner and the victor: either you prevail or you are killed. Your prevailing therein carries a tremendous reward, and being killed is martyrdom, according to the word of God, Exalted and Glorious: «Say: Do you await for us anything other than one of the two best things?» [9:52].
The means by which every enemy harms you is through his scheming against your soul by way of its desire.
I said: It has been established for me that the cause of every danger I fear for myself is from the direction of desire, and that in opposing it there is obedience to God, Exalted and Glorious, and that in obedience to God, Exalted and Glorious, there is His ṣidq (truthfulness) and His love. So explain that to me and make me know it.
He said: You will not be truthful with God until you are truthful with your soul, and you will not be truthful with your soul until you know it.
You come to know it [the nafs (the self)] until you examine it and present it to death and present it before God, exalted and glorious, and scrutinize its states until you judge it and suspect it in that which you suppose it to be acting well, and by what has appeared of its evildoing.
So if you suspect it, you examine it; and if you examine it, you scrutinize its states; and if you scrutinize its states, you come to know its fabrication, its deception, and its falsehood.
And if you come to know it, you become wary of it; and if you become wary of it, you watch over it; and if you watch over it, you perceive its evasion from the wellspring of every evil, and its claiming obedience to the command of God, exalted and glorious, and its adorning itself with what is not for the love of its Creator — the source of every affliction. Its Creator, exalted and glorious, has informed you about it that it «indeed commands to evil» [12:53], and that caprice is ruinous, to be followed. So take your caution from it, and suspect it regarding your religion.
Chapter on Knowing the Evil of the Soul's Desire
I said: Guide me to that by which I may know some of its faults, so that my suspicion of it may become firm, and I may examine it and come to know it.
He said: Do you not see that resolve from the self in the state of contentment is generously given, that forbearance is offered freely, unwithheld?
I said: Indeed.
He said: Every creature, whether disbeliever or believer, at the time of contentment — but when you grow angry, you become enraged, and there would appear from some people that which, were it to appear, would be hideous.
I said: Indeed.
Does he not abandon you at the time of need? Is he not insincere? So when you are in need, He enriches you.
His forbearance delivered you to destruction, and so you seek to earn the Garden thereby. Your promise, if fulfilled at the time of anger—know well that to satisfy your anger by what your Lord, Mighty and Glorious, detests is for it to become clear to you that He detests it, yet your nafs (self) emboldened you therein.
And it made burdensome upon you the pursuit of salvation. So who is a greater enemy to you than the one who did that to you?
Likewise, ikhlāṣ (sincerity)—it gives to you before the deed. And sincerity is nothing other than the intention of sincerity toward the deed—that it be voided on the day of your poverty, when your need is greatest. You claimed that your compliance was that you—at the time of the deed—acted sincerely out of fearful concern for Him. It gives you that generously, without withholding.
But when the deed is presented, the nafs rushes with supplication toward entering into it, and what you had promised to flee from, you did not flee. And what you had promised to carry out, you refused to carry out. And desire rushed in with ostentation (riyāʾ), and you withheld sincerity, and you withheld what would have made your deed complete.
It called you to what would void your deed on the day of your poverty, when your need is greatest.
Consider what you promised at the time of the deed, and the withholding of sincerity at the time of the deed. I inform you that it intends thereby the nullification of your deed, precisely where you need it on the day of your poverty, when your need is greatest. Were you not one who had fulfilled what you promised?
Likewise, it gives you waraʿ (scrupulous piety) in the state of non-existence—that being merely an intention. It claims that it will leave what the Mighty and Glorious detests at the time of exposure to trial, out of fear that God would be angry with you, thereby incurring punishment and being deprived of reward. And it claims that it abstains from disobedience, hoping thereby for safety from punishment and attainment of success and reward.
Until, when you are able and tested, the nafs surges with its desire, and you sought what you had claimed—that it would abandon it when—
It presents itself to you out of compassionate concern for you from the Fire and deprivation of reward, and it withholds and abstains from what you desire. From wara' (scrupulous piety) comes the hope of security from punishment and attaining success and reward.
Can the most hostile of your enemies do anything but give you a sense of security (amn) by which you are deluded, so that you settle and become tranquil, and you do not guard against him and you trust him? Until, when your enemy presents what he promised you to give you, he turns out to be the one seeking your destruction and your ruin, so that he may obtain what he wants and desires.
Likewise, zuhd (renunciation of worldly attachment) gives to you before you possess anything, until it seems to you that you are among the renunciants — until, when you possess the world or even a little of it, desire (raghba) stirs from within it, and it becomes the one demanding, contending, driving toward desire, deflecting from renunciation, and enticing away from it. It breaks its promise to you, and it turns against you to the opposite of what it gave you.
Likewise, rida (contentment) in the state of ease and well-being before the decree falls with trials and afflictions, until it seems to you that you are among the contented.
That is a state in which every believer and every sinner finds contentment, because it is a state that accords with what the souls love. In His sight, this state is not what is meant by contentment (rida); rather, that resolve is only an intention to be content — not actual contentment — because true contentment is contentment after the decree falls with trials and afflictions.
When a calamity or affliction in one's body, or hardship in one's livelihood from among the severities of this world descends, it withholds from contentment; rather, it becomes the very thing that stirs toward anxiety and resentment, and it causes one to cling tightly to contentment only to then turn away from it. It does not fulfill what it promised, and it becomes the very thing that calls to what God, Mighty and Glorious, detests of resentment, and it deflects from contentment.
Likewise, tawakkul (trust in God) and confidence in God, Mighty and Glorious, gives to you as long as the means and worldly provisions come to you and you are spared burden. But when a state comes in which one needs to look to God, Mighty and Glorious, and not to His creation —
apart from the causes that are without God, Exalted and Glorified,
the hope of the created beings became hollow, and their fear, «connected to obedience». The heart was compelled to preoccupy itself with the causes, and affectation and flattery toward creation became manifest.
Thus the nafs (self) deceived you when you needed it, and it was the very thing that diverted you from tawakkul (trust in God), Exalted and Glorified, and from clinging to Him.
It broke its promise and its resolve faltered. It struggled against you and refused.
If you then pressed upon it by reminding it of the threat and the promise, and reminded it of the gaze of God, Exalted and Glorified, upon it, His standing over it, and His questioning of it tomorrow, and you reflected with your intellect — in which yaqin (certainty) had become clear, and ma'rifa (gnosis) had grown great, and inner insight had intensified — and that overcame its caprice and its instinct, contrary to what it had submitted to before —
Then when you saw that you had intervened between it and evil, both outward and inward, you sought out the hidden, obscure evil, and it spread over you seeking riya' (ostentation) to adorn itself with, and 'ujb (self-admiration) to find comfort in, and kibr (pride) to aggrandize and boast through. It desires to attain its pleasure, and whatever it is answered with — it is as though it does not want to arrive at any good deed of the Hereafter.
But it only circles around — and what concern is that of yours? — for if you reach that point, it strives to nullify it. It keeps turning this way and that, and if it does not turn, it was as if it had turned twice, unconcerned.
If you then pressed upon it, and scrutinized the subtleties of its contention, and the stratagems of its deception, and you disliked that, and you remembered what God, Exalted and Glorified, has set forth regarding it and what He threatens you with for accepting that, and for inclining to it — from nullification and exposure to divine loathing — then fear and caution overcame your heart, and it submitted, though reluctantly. Then it is not satisfied even with the granting of this resolve, but then betrays it and assists in
(1) That is because the reality of tawakkul (trust in God) is: taking up the means by the ruling of the Shari'a (Sacred Law), and attaching confidence, attention, and the heart to the Causer of causes — Glory be to Him — by the ruling of reality, for He is the Owner of the means and the One capable of nullifying one's deeds.
Many people, when the means do not suffice them, go astray from the path, and they increase in clinging to causes, and this is the locus of trial.
You speak with the speech of the believers, and you cloak yourself with the words of the fearful, calling to God—Exalted and Majestic—until you expose and reveal evil.
You describe the afflictions of religion—backbiting, lying, riyā' (ostentation), arrogance, envy, and self-delusion—with the humility of the humble.
So you were deceived by her in that, supposing that she would never cease from this. Yet when trials befell her, she manifested the opposite and reversed all of that, desiring its contrary.
She had been making you imagine that khawf (fear) had a root in your qalb (heart), along with ṣidq (truthfulness) and ikhlāṣ (sincerity), humility, zuhd (renunciation), tawakkul (trust in God), and riḍā (contentment). But when the circumstances came in which you would be tested as to whether you were truthful in what you supposed had settled in your heart—of fear, sincerity, renunciation, contentment, trust, and truthfulness—a passion from among them surged, and desires clashed, being the opposite of all that.
Had that truly been settled in your heart, it would have emerged at the time of need, and its opposite would not have surged. But if its opposite surged, then its opposite overcame it, and so you knew that this was a giving in haste without cost, alongside an unverified claim.
Consider: if a group of people said to you, "We are with you when a calamity or severe hardship befalls you," but then the calamity befell you and they abandoned you, and you sought them but did not find them—you would know that they were not with you, but rather they deceived you.
And while you were marveling at their betrayal and the paucity of their loyalty, they then turned against you and aided your enemy against you. Your amazement at them would increase greatly. Your wariness of them regarding the future would intensify, and you would not feel at ease with a promise they made to you.
And if a second time you heard them mentioning their support for you in hardships, you would not recognize their prior state [TN: i.e., you would not trust what you previously knew of them].
So know your nafs (soul)—however slight—for she contends with you, and never has she desired any good except that she was the one calling to its opposite—however slight. And no evil has ever presented itself to you except that she was behind it.
You have not lost any good except through its abhorrence, nor have you committed its detested acts except out of love for them.
It is incumbent upon you to be wary of it, for it does not cease pulling you toward comfort in this world and heedlessness of the Hereafter. For if your inclination toward this world and toward comfort is awakened, then counter it with remembrance of the Hereafter, and reflect much upon it, and think about it and wish for it.
Not a single hour of the portions of the day passes for you without your nafs (self) contending with you through thought of the Hereafter, pulling you away from it. If you become heedless of it, you settle into comfort and become preoccupied. And if your inclination is awakened, it is to preoccupy you from what you are engaged in. Its caprice is an overpowerer of your intellect. It causes your intellect to become heedless while it never becomes heedless, and it contends with you while it never remembers. It is not lawful for you to kill it, and you are unable to part from it while it holds this station of enmity toward you.
So know it and be wary of it, for if you know it you will increase in caution against it. And upon your Lord place your tawakkul (trust), and in Him have confidence, and to Him have tranquility, and toward it have hatred and loathing, and for your Lord — Mighty and Majestic — have love and affection, and from it have despair and hopelessness, and for your Lord — Mighty and Majestic — have hope and expectation. And to Him — Mighty and Majestic — belongs the blessing, the favor, and the grace for what you have done — in acknowledgment, admission, gratitude, and recognition that it [the nafs] is free of any share in that.
For you are as if you have accompanied two companions: one of them — it is not lawful for you to kill him, and you are unable to part from him, like a mother or a father. And he has a voracious craving to obtain his pleasure and give his body comfort. And even if you are granted that, while you are with him, you become heedless, and he comes with a boulder to smash your head with it. Then the other one who is with you awakens you, so you rise to him and seize his hand, and you take the boulder from his hand and cast it away.
Likewise, if he prepared food with poison in it, and the other one alerted you — if you truly knew him — you would increase in hatred and loathing toward him, and in love and affection toward the one who alerted you and made you aware, and in caution of killing for the one who intended [harm] against you. And upon the one who alerted you place your tawakkul (trust), and in him have confidence, and your dependence upon him intensifies, and your hope is cut off from the one who intended to plot against you.
sleep, and His alerting you and His warning you to that for which your reward is due, and His cutting off from you the wonder at your sagacity, and His making you recognize the blessing and the grace to the One who alerted you and warned you, until you were protected from the stratagems of your enemy who intended to plot against you.
So the enemy is the one who intended to plot against you — your own nafs (self) — and the One who alerted you and warned you is your Lord, Mighty and Glorious. How many a tribulation has it desired for you, and your inclination toward it, and you contemplated it or committed it, yet God, Mighty and Glorious, warned you of it, and you abandoned it and did not commit it; and what you did commit, you regretted it and repented to Him.
If you have recognized these things, you increase in love and affection for God, Mighty and Glorious, and in hatred and loathing for what is against God, Mighty and Glorious; and in tawakkul (trusting reliance) and confidence from some of them, and in despair from others; and in tranquility toward God, Mighty and Glorious, from some of them, and in caution and wariness from others. And you did not marvel at what you did, and you did not attribute it to yourself, since its desire was in opposition to what you did of good, and its desire was for what you abandoned of evil — and had you been left to its desire, it would have arrived at it.
So the One who alerted you and aided you against what its desire opposed is God, Mighty and Glorious. So know Him, Mighty and Glorious, and know it. For if you have recognized it, you have been truthful regarding it; and if you are truthful regarding it and do not deal leniently with it and do not comply with its caprice, you have been truthful with God, Mighty and Glorious, and you have been mindful of Him and turned to Him and placed your trust in Him.
So hold it in suspicion regarding what you fear of good from it, without hope being cut off from you, so that despair and despondency enter upon you. Rather, be diligent and investigate. And if you know nothing, then praise God, Mighty and Glorious, and be apprehensive that there may have been from it what God, Mighty and Glorious, detests. What you remember of it is due to the dominance of its caprice, and its Master over it has enumerated what you have done — along with hope in God, Mighty and Glorious, that He will accept from you what you have done.
And if there was from you a matter that He detests, what you have done — you hope for pardon from Him for it, and you do not abandon apprehension, and the anxiety that He may not pardon you, while you hope through that apprehension for pardon from you and forgiveness. For whoever fears that he will not be pardoned, with sincerity, will be pardoned; and whoever feels secure and is deluded deserves not to be pardoned.
So beware of it and scrutinize it and contest it, as one contests the opponent — the wronged, the treacherous, the evasive — with the intensity of his evidence, the embellisher who speaks falsehood with the force of his argumentation.
And you scrutinize it until the just proofs are established against it, and you search it until, when the evidence is established against it, or it is searched and the stolen goods are found with it, its argument is cut off, and it submits and confesses.
If it then refuses to render the right that it has acknowledged or against which the evidence has been established, you raise it to the place of judgment, and judgment is passed against it with imprisonment and beating. When it looks upon that, and [sees] that it cannot but be given the least of what can be obtained from it, and that the most of what it withholds will be taken from it, it yields the right and repels the wrong.
And likewise, contest it (nafs, the soul) with the Book and the Sunna, and establish the proof against it, and scrutinize it for its faults, and remind it of its vileness and its lies, until it submits with confession and acknowledgment of the truth, and its excuses, its evasiveness, and its lying arguments are cut off.
If it then submits to the truth, [well and good]; otherwise, raise its apprehension to the Fire — which is the prison and the punishment — and make it imagine the severity of its torment and that it is obligatory upon it. When it sees with the sight of the intellect and the eye of yaqīn (certainty), and the khawf (fear) agitates it, it will come apart with supplication, remorse, and resolve, and it will submit to the truth. When it witnesses [the truth], and you have come to know it has surrendered to God and been taken captive, having received what it deserved —
Then beware of it also after that, lest it incline back to what it had abandoned and so betray you treacherously. If it contends with you, establish the proof against it, show it the punishment, encourage it by [the prospect of] abandoning [sin and receiving] the reward, and show it — through the witnessing of yaqīn (certainty) — [what awaits]. And seek aid from God, exalted and majestic, and rely upon Him (tawakkul) with trust in Him, think well of Him, and despair that any good could come from it [the soul] if God, exalted and majestic, entrusts you to it. So rely upon Him, and let your hope and expectation from it [the soul] be cut off.